Ethiopia

12 June 2008 -- The United States said Thursday it has "persistently" expressed concern about human rights in Ethiopia with top officials in Addis Ababa, including alleged abuses in the Ogaden region. The comments follow an assertion by the monitoring group Human Rights Watch that the United States and key European countries have been silent on Ogaden rights violations.

Rural Addis Ababa: Photo by Travlr (CC)

The State Department says it is giving the Human Rights Watch report on the Ogaden careful study but it is rejecting out-of-hand the report's assertion of U.S. silence on Ethiopian human rights.    » read more »

21 April 2008 -- A Somali human rights group says two days of fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, has killed 81 people.

The Elman Human Rights organization says another 119 people were wounded in fighting Saturday and Sunday between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian troops.

Map of Somalia: Map courtesy CIA World Factbook

The chairman of the rights group, Sudan Ali Ahmed condemned the use of artillery shells in residential areas of Mogadishu.

There was no independent verification of the death toll, but residents had reported escalating clashes since Saturday. Witnesses say they have seen scores of bodies in the streets of Mogadishu.    » read more »

03 March 2008 -- A weeklong conference on “Science with Africa opens Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The conference is a follow-up to the African Union summit last year in which the heads of state declared 2007 the year of science and technology. The leaders also called on African countries to allocate one percent of their gross domestic product to research and development by 2020 so as to achieve specific Millennium Development Goals.    » read more »

10 Millionth Dose of Zithromax

23 January 2008 -- AWI ZONE, AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA. . .Today a group led by Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Jimmy Ross witnessed a historic moment in trachoma control when the 10 millionth dose of azithromycin (Zithromax®) was dispensed to a person in Awi Zone. The antibiotic, donated by Pfizer Inc, is a main strategy in the fight against the blinding disease in poor, rural areas.    » read more »

16 January 2008 -- There are reports that Ethiopian authorities are jamming some international radio broadcasts, a charge the Ethiopian government denies. The stations allegedly affected are the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) and the Voice of America (VOA).

The chairperson of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, Hassan Shire Shiek, says the Ethiopian government has created stations to deliberately disrupt the signals of DW and VOA’s Amharic and Oromifa programs.    » read more »

27 November 2007 -- Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his country is prepared for a possible war with neighboring Eritrea, and warned that an invasion by Eritrea would lead to that country's destruction. His comments came three days before a deadline for demarcating their common border. Mr. Meles also acknowledged that Ethiopia is bogged down in another conflict in Somalia.    » read more »

Addis Ababa -- 25 November 2007 -- The United States says it is more than doubling humanitarian aid to Ethiopia's troubled Ogaden region. The announcement was made Saturday following talks beween top U.S. foreign aid officials and Ethiopia's prime minister on the importance of stability in the Horn of Africa region. The meeting came days before a deadline in the simmering border dispute between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- The treatment of neglected tropical diseases, as well as malaria, in developing countries was the focus of a recent conference in Washington, DC. The term “neglected tropical diseases” is used to describe a group of illnesses that don’t receive enough funding, due to the fact that although they hurt people, they don’t kill them.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- The group of illnesses known as neglected tropical diseases continue to strike people across Africa. The diseases are called “neglected” because they don’t receive enough funding, due to the fact that although they damage people, they don’t kill them.    » read more »

06 November 2007 -- The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has narrowed the field to three finalists for the men's and women's 2007 World Athlete of the Year awards.

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, and world sprint champion Tyson Gay of the United States are in the running for the men's award.

The women's nominees include Swedish heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, Ethiopian distance runner Meseret Defar and Croatian high-jumper Blanka Vlasic.    » read more »

07 November 2007 -- An advisory this week from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group is alerting world bodies and governments to stop Ethiopia and Eritrea from sliding back into a protracted border war. Although both sides agreed in Algiers in 2000 to halt their boundary dispute, which flared up in 1998, and abide by rulings of an international commission, tensions have grown since 2002, when Ethiopia blocked physical demarcation of the border and Eritrea blocked UN peacekeepers from carrying out their mission.    » read more »

30 October 2007 -- The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are among Ethiopia's crowning glories, recognized internationally as a unique and important site. Built in the early 1200s by King Lalibela, the churches continue to draw pilgrims from around the world and are a testament to the grandeur of the millennium that has just passed in Ethiopia.

Legend has it that before he became king, Saint Gebre Mesqel Lalibela fell into a deep sleep for three days after his half-brother tried to poison him.    » read more »

25 October 2007 -- In September 2007 Western time, Ethiopians rang in their new millennium, seven-and-a-half years after the rest of the world. Ethiopia's unique way of measuring time is part of the country's rich religious and cultural heritage, evident in many sites throughout the land.

Ethiopia officially entered the year 2000 at the stroke of midnight on September 12th. In the capital, Addis Ababa, the last hours of 1999 Ethiopian time included cultural dancing and a concert by the American hip hop group, the Black Eyed Peas.    » read more »

24 October 2007 -- An Ethiopian publisher who gave birth to a son while imprisoned, a group of Iraqi women reporters who risk their lives to cover the war, a Mexican journalist who receives threats to her life, and a VOA contributor from Zimbabwe are the recipients of this year's "Courage in Journalism" awards.    » read more »

10 October 2007 -- Somali officials and witnesses say a car bomb exploded killing two Ethiopian soldiers as the vehicle was driven into an Ethiopian military base in Somalia.

Wednesday's suicide bombing took place in the town of Baidoa near a hotel where Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was staying. The prime minister was unharmed.

An Islamist rebel group, Mujahidin Youth Movement claimed responsibility for the attack in an statement on its Web site. It denied that Mr. Gedi was the target, although there have been past attempts on his life.    » read more »